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Report: China, with 2-decade buildup, has ‘long-term strategy’ for supremacy

U.S. Adm. Philip Davidson: ‘China is no longer a rising power but an arrived great power and peer competitor to the United States in the region.’ / Xinhua

China’s modernization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) over the past two decades has “resulted in a force capable of contesting U.S. operations in the region, presenting challenges to the U.S. military’s longstanding assumption of enjoying ground, air, maritime, and information dominance in a conflict in the post-Cold War era,” according to a congressional commission report made public on Nov. 14.

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The commission said in the 539-page report that the military buildup is part of China’s effort to take control over Asia, increasing the danger of war.

The military buildup includes large-scale cyber theft of American technology, increased arms sales to rogue states like Iran, and bullying of regional countries in Asia, including Taiwan, the report said.

In April, Adm. Philip Davidson, the new commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, told Congress: “China is pursuing a long-term strategy to reduce U.S. access and influence in the [Indo-Pacific] region and become the clear regional hegemon, and Beijing has already made significant progress along this path. China is no longer a rising power but an arrived great power and peer competitor to the United States in the region.”